MIDNIGHT IN THE SWITCHGRASS
US, 2021, 99 minutes, Colour.
Emile Hirsch, Megan Fox, Bruce Willis, Lukas Haas.
Directed by Randall Emmett.
For more than a decade Bruce Willis made several action films a year. But, here he is very much part of the supporting cast. The film belongs to Megan Fox and Emile Hirsch.
The film opens with the investigation of the death of a prostitute, identification, the detective, Byron, Emile Hirsch, going to communicate the news to her mother. He is obsessed with previous killings and wants to investigate, but is not supported by his superiors. He encounters two FBI agents, Rebecca and Karl, Megan Fox and Bruce Willis, and collaborates with them in the investigation.
Bruce Willis has only a few sequences, an ageing FBI agent, warning his partner against taking risks. Rebecca is impelled, wants to take risks, sets up dates and encounters, her drink spiked by the serial killer whom the audience has been watching for some time, abducted.
The killer, a truckie, with a loving family, devoted to his daughter, he is played by Lukas Haas (innocent young boy, in Witness, 1985). We see him rescuing a young woman but is, in fact, abducting her. He is obsessed, makes excuses to his family, goes to bars, sets up the meetings, abducts assaults, kills the women.
Byron does some detective work and is able to eventually save the day.
An interesting abduction and detection action drama.
- The title? Evocative? The isolated farmhouse, the fields, the switchgrass, the culmination in the switchgrass?
- Murders, serial killer, background and situations, the visualising of the attacks on murders? The police investigation, the FBI, the special mission for Rebecca? The audience knowing who the killer was, seeing him as a person, his interventions, family life, devotion to his daughter, double life, the bars, the pickups, imprisonment, torture, killings?
- Byron’s story, local police, his investigations, reputation, interactions with his superiors? On the scene of the crimes? Linking the murders? The information, the flashbacks? His marriage and home life? The devotion of his wife? Being away from home? The investigations, the initial dead girl, going to visit her mother, his empathy with the mother, his promise of further news? The encounter with Karl and Rebecca? The FBI? Collaboration?
- Rebecca, seeing her with the client, his behaviour, her behaviour, turning the tables? Her motivation, her past? The investigations, relentless, taking risks? A partnership with Karl, discussions with him, his cautions? Her becoming more involved, following clues, going to the bar, in the bar with Peter, his spiking her drink, the abduction, finding Tracy? Peter and his behaviour, taunts? Her urging Tracy to escape, the consequences, her being left hanging?
- Tracy, at the party, leaving, upset, the truckie attacking her, Peter intervening, her taking the lift, his abducting her, imprisoning her? Blindfold, treatment, sexual and provocative? Rebecca arriving, her spirit low, Rebecca urging her to escape, getting out, in the switchgrass, finding the house, being taken in, saved, the woman not responding to Peter’s threats?
- Peter, initially seeming gallant, abducting Tracy, the scenes with his wife, his absorption with his daughter? Going out, excuses, going to the bars, the pickups, the women, serial killer? Spiking Rebecca’s drink, abducting her? At home, his daughter seeing someone in the switchgrass, Tracy’s escape, his going to the house, the old lady getting him to leave?
- Byron, his continued investigations, getting the information about the truck drivers, their presence and absence, getting the address of Peter, going to the house, the rescue? His going back to the old lady with the news of Peter’s capture?
- Rebecca, the experience, the future? And her work with Karl?
